DJJunis Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Hello All, Attached are some pictures of a nostalgia build I completed recently. It s vintage Monogram Avenger. I trimmed off all the working feature bumps and bits , split the bomb bay doors, drilled-out the exhaust, trimmed t, refined the pilots machine gun area, removed the turret gunner from the sat (one figure was enough to paint lol), reworked the torpedo a bit, replaced the kit wheels and tires with spare ones from a Accurate Miniatures Avenger and replaced as many rivets as I lost during sanding. Paint is Vallejo over a primer of Tamiya acrylic. Final matt is Vallejo. Markings depict a surviving Avenger to get back to Midway during the battle...the turret gunner was killed. They were scavenged from the TBD kit and my stash. I accomplished a couple of things with this build. Finally got an early Avenger in my collection, have a model with the wings folded and got this kit done as it has haunted me since the early 60's of the early efforts trying to get all the working features to work properly. Proving once again with age comes knowledge...the wings are permanently folded. LOL! Hope you enjoy the pictures. All the Best! Don 19 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackem01 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Lovely clean build. Canopies are immaculate - how did you do it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Proper old school, really good work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Beautifully done! I remember when that kit was new! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJJunis Posted April 28, 2020 Author Share Posted April 28, 2020 1 hour ago, mackem01 said: Lovely clean build. Canopies are immaculate - how did you do it? Thank you so much. The canopies and the turret were masked with a very thin .7MM Tamiya -like tape around the frame and use a single edge razor blade to trim. It's much sharper than a regular #11. Once that is done I use a liquid mask to fill in the middle. I spray the interior color, then the exterior and finally the matt coat. I wait a day until it is thoroughly dry then I carefully pull the tape off to avoid paint pulling off. I have been using Tamia acrylic as a primer, usually the actual primer color, in this case my mix of Interior Green. Once the mask is off any clean-up is done with a sharpened toothpick and any restoration is done with a very fine brush. I then polish each clear portion with a cotton cloth to get it to really shine. It is patience and time consuming..but worth it in my opinion...even for this "old girl". Hope this helps and thank you again. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toryu Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 I love that! Great finish of the old lady. I had one in the stash for ages, but then bought the Accurate Miniatures because I thought the vintage Monogram will be too cumbersome to upgrade. Neither of the two built yet... 🙁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Joyce Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Nicely done, Don! It sounds like masking those clear parts was quite a chore, but you did a fantastic job on it. Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson Duvalier Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Nice to see an early Avenger! The old girl scrubs up well, I really like the raised rivets here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janneman36 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Given the age of the kit I must say that it looks great..you have don it justice 🏆 cheers, Jan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Great job 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fubar57 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Beautiful job, love the canopy work as well. I did Monogram's F65 a few years ago. Spread the wings which was a real biotch and built the interior. This was more an exercise off my scratch building than anything else 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryanm Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Very nice! The working parts on those kits were great fun for a youngster. I didn't build the Avenger but remember the Helldiver very well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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